Announcing this at a national workshop on media and gene revolution here, Gerald Barry, a spokesperson of the US-based company and co-ordinator, rice genome initiatives, USA, said successful development and adoption of enhanced varieties like golden rice could help millions of people suffering from vitamin A deficiency.
He said the company had recently launched a new Internet website www.rice-research.org at which the company's genome sequence database was available to researchers around the world.
The company was ready with its draft sequence on rice genome, the first crop genome to be described in such technical detail, he said, adding, in order to facilitate and encourage basic research to improve rice and other crops, data was being made available at no charge to registered researchers through its new website.
Monsanto is an active partner of the rice genome sequence project initiated in 1998 by the international research consortium, International Rice Genome Sequence Project (IRGSP), comprising ten research teams around the world.
